Winter Is Coming (Gillick)
Introduction As a class, we have talked a lot about refashioning older texts to create something new. A great example that we talked about in class is Brian Kim Steffan’s "Star Wars, one letter at a time." The first thing Steffan does is take the narrative from the movie “Star Wars” and put it onto a website. What makes this site so intriguing is how Steffan presents the text from “Star Wars” as if it were being typed out by George Lucas himself. In addition to the refashioning of text on the web, we also see reenactments of texts in real life simulations. These are especially popular with texts in the science fiction, fantasy, and medieval genres. These reenactments can be classified as a text turning into a lifestyle for the user. These lifestyles are usually expressed through the recreation of an important battle in the text. Another big topic we have discussed in class is how new technologies such as wiki’s and other internet tools have provided us with new forums to discuss a text. These are a great way to create internet communities where users can talk about their experience interacting with a text. This interaction usually spawns some interpretive disputes. These disputes do not have to be heated and usually revolve around how to reproduce a certain element of the story or what the author is trying to insinuate in a certain passage. One of the texts we have looked at in class that illustrates the influence of these online forums is “Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Community” by Henry Jenkins. This explores the culture of a knowledge community and specifically focuses on merging old and new technologies. In addition, he talks about the presence of community leaders who act as moderators and are looked to as a source of knowledge. Often, these leaders are able to have the final say in an interpretive dispute and their answer is respected as the correct answer. For my “Media Networks” project I will be analyzing the popular HBO television series “Game of Thrones”. This series is quickly becoming the new hit television show that everyone from my generation is watching. It is currently in its third season of production and is accompanied by four books which it is based off of. I have not read the books and as such I will focus exclusively on the television series. The main plot is based around a few different houses at war with each other. However, this show is unique in that there are many different storylines that are going on at the same time. This requires the show to jump around to as many as five or six different locations in a single episode. The content topics I will be focusing on are knowledge communities, interpretive disputes, and lifestyle. I will analyze knowledge communities by examining multiple blogs, wiki’s, and websites dedicated to discussing Game of Thrones. I will use these different interfaces to discuss how knowledge communities form new communities around the text that otherwise could not have existed. Interpretive disputes will focus around arguments that overlap between multiple knowledge communities. When I look at lifestyle, I will hone in on reenactments and conventions to see how this gave the community a greater understanding of the text. To provide an overarching theme to my analysis, I will be relating my sections back to how internet tools create unique opportunities for users to interact with the text. Knowledge Communities Before I begin my analysis I would like to define knowledge communities. In the aforementioned “Spoiling Survivor”, Pierre Levy states that knowledge communities “make available to the collective intellect all of the pertinent knowledge available to it at a given moment” and are "held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge.” Basically, a knowledge community is a forum for people to gather and speak about a subject that interests them. What ends up happening is that a huge amount of information about this subject is brought to one place to be dissected by the opinionated users. This community must have multiple members participating and contributing knowledge in order for it to be successful. A Forum of Ice and Fire is a particularly good knowledge community for all things related to Game of Thrones. This forum is an example of a knowledge community that is looking to build a huge database of knowledge about the show. There is a thread that breaks down each episode by scene, detailing exactly what happened and how it connects back to the plot. In addition, there is a thread that details news about the show so followers can stay up to date about things that will happen in future seasons. One example I found particularly intriguing was a topic about one of the director’s staff memberscreating a completely new language for the actors to learn in the upcoming season. The fact that there are over 10,000 views and 100 replies to this thread makes it clear that any news about Game of Thrones causes great excitement on this forum. This previous topic I just mentioned was started by a user named Westeros. Westeros is the administrator on the website and is seen by the other members of the board as an expert. He is considered an expert because he actually has a seperate blog about Game of Thrones called Westeros. When he posts news on A Forum of Ice and Fire, he uses the stories he covered in his blog as topics of discussion. I am not sure if he is the only one who has access to posting news topics, but he is the only one who has ever started a topic under the news section of the forum. Further, he attained his status of expert by getting in touch with people who are producing and directing the show and sharing their answers to his questions on the forum. For example, he was able to interview writer and story editor Bryan Cogman and postthe interview to the forum. All of the responses from people in the community were extremely positive and showed how grateful they were to get a personal account from one of the writers of the show. This personal account definitely helped them gain a better understanding of the decision making behind the writing of the show and could not have happened without this knowledge community. Because of the utilization of blogs and forums, users are able to connect with each other like never before. The fact that a knowledge community even exists is attributable to the advent of web based tools. These new technologies make it possible for users to compile huge encyclopedias of knowledge about a show. In addition, it increases the amount of people you can interact with that also watch that same show or read that same book. Before I move on to interpretive disputes, I would like to point out that because Game of Thrones is both a series of books and a television series, the forum is split into two different boards. On the television show board, it is strictly forbidden to post any spoilers without first giving a warning that your post contains a spoiler. You do this by writing something to the effect of “book spoiler” in your subject line before you write your post. The community seems to abide by this rule with no issues because I have yet to be surprised by an unmarked spoiler in somebody’s post. Interpretive Disputes Interpretive disputes are found in almost all knowledge communities. In order to define interpretive disputes I will use a quote from Stanley Fish in an excerpt from “The John’s Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism” in which he says a reader “constructs interpretations and repudiates them in favor of new ones.” In essence, when we read a certain passage we form a conclusion based on our previous experiences. This is not to say that this interpretation cannot be changed and in fact many times an interpretive dispute will help us form a new opinion. An interpretive dispute is simply the act of arguing about an aspect of a text that can be interpreted in multiple ways. A classic example of an interpretive dispute is debating over whether an actor is the right fit to play a certain role when a movie is made into a motion picture. A big issue that I have come across in multiple Game of Thrones knowledge communities is some people believe the show to be inherently racist. While this might not seem like an interpretive dispute at first, it is important to note that the people who believe the show is racist do not believe that the books are racist. Thus, they believe that the show should depict the characters differently in order to more accurately follow the book. When prefaced like this, it becomes a classic interpretive dispute. In the Game of Thrones section of the forum Television without Pity, one member states that the Dothraki represent the colored section of society while the light skinned members of the show represent the white portion of real life society. They are met with a lot of negativity on this particular board. Most of the posters do not agree with this view, however there are a few that see where the member is coming from with his argument. There is another blog called StormFront where this same debate was brought up and it brought out a few different people who agreed that the show is racist. One poster argues that the Dothraki are depicted similar to Mongolian tribes. Another one argued that the show makes it seem as if only the dark skinned characters are savages while the lighter skinned characters sit in their beautiful chambers. Technically, interpretive disputes are not reliant on new technologies to survive because all they requires are two people with different opinions to have an argument. But, interpretive disputes are spread to a much wider audience because of web based tools. I believe that this makes these disputes more interesting because it adds more points of view to the debate. In addition, if you are trying to decide what color you think one of the King’s gowns should be, you can poll thousands of people rather than limiting yourself to the few people you physically talk to. In turn, this might open your eyes to different possibilities that you had not even considered. Like we have previously mentioned with Stanley Fish, people have different ways of interpreting the same thing and through technology you have access to many more interpretations. Lifestyle For the purposes of this section, lifestyle is defined as avidly following a text to the point of changing some part of your daily life to more accurately reflect the culture of the text. This could be something as simple as saying hello in the traditional way of the Dothraki, to fully acting out the Siege of Blackwater Bay. Game of Thrones, much like other popular fantasy series’, has a following of people who like to act out the famous battle scenes in order to feel more fully immersed in the culture of the text. I found a group that does full reenactments of all the battles and almost every scene from the television show. They are known as the Game of thrones Cosplayers and they are a group of over 50 individuals who previously did not know each other. This is important to note because without the help of online knowledge communities they would have never known each other and this group would likely not exist. Something that is pretty neat about this group is that they actually built a replica of the famous Iron Throne. They carry this throne around to the various events they attend and it always receives many compliments. In addition, when they act out the battles they are dressed as similarly to the actual characters as possible. This includes creating banners for each house and making a dragon costume so that the dragons can be accurately represented. While most of their functions are conventions and other friendly gatherings such as cookouts and barbeques, when they act out their battles they can last over a period of a few days. Furthermore, during this period they will attempt to speak as if they were in Westeros and the Dothraki even attempt to speak their native tongue. There is also a festival called The Fire and Ice Convention that is held in April to celebrate Game of Thrones. It is held at Ravenwood Castle and they have different sections of the castle marked off to represent the different houses in Game of Thrones. They have various events going on during the day, such as jousting and fencing. This year they just added a tournament of champions to reflect the tournament that is held for The Hand of the King in the first season. This tournament consists of jousting, faux swordplay, and archery competitions. While this is a paid event, it is still definitely an example of a user trying to enhance their immersion into the Game of Thrones world through their lifestyle. When adjusting some aspect of your lifestyle to become more in tune with Game of Thrones, you are consciously thinking about what the characters would do in your situation. Thus, you are further processing the information you know about the show and applying it to your own life. This helps you comprehend the material because you are actually experiencing it. Of course, in certain battle scenes there might not be much to comprehend. But, when you speak in an elegant, airy language you might find yourself behaving more elegant and sophisticated. This interesting phenomenon will help you better understand the mindset of that particular character you are emulating. To conclude, the advent of web technologies has helped people recreate the experiences of the text by connecting them with their peers. In addition, these new technologies have led to more information about characters and plots. This in turn leads to a more fulfilling lifestyle experience because you are able to more accurately adopt the customs of your desired text’s culture. Further Resources http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html A Forum of Fire and Ice Game of Thrones Wiki Official Game of Thrones Website Game of Thrones IMDB Page Game of Thrones Facebook References